Friends
Alter
Spezial
CAmels, villages, ZiGGurats
ASSYRIA
Harvesting points in Mesopotamia
A already clear from the subtitle, the location of this game is Mesopotamia, the land between Euphrates and Tigris, the land between rivers. The time: about 2000 years before the birth of Christ.
You embody the leader of a nomadic tribe and move across the partly fruitful lands, build huts, supply them if you have enough food, dig wells in the dry lands and finally you build ziggurats and try to gain the most prestige by all that.
Ziggurat is a word of Babylonian origin and means, as stated by Wikipedia, high/piled up, heavenly hill, mountain of the Gods. A ziggurat is a tiered dedicated to the Gods of Babylon.
The game features, beside the easily read and well-structured rules, a board, 40 round huts and 15 markers in 4 colors. Furthermore, 4 x 16 ziggurat tiles in 4 colours and three different sizes. That is complimented by 16 small, round wells and 54 cards. A special mentioning is due to the fact that the material is entirely wooden, absolutely pretty and easy to distinguish color-wise.
The board shows the land between rivers, with an overlying grid of hexes. Each of these hexes shows one of five kinds of food: Either grapes, palm, salt, barley or dates. The board is framed by the scoring track for victory points. Between the hexes grid and the scoring track we find a table for the camels and the order of play. At the bottom left you find the table for sacrifices and to the right the agricultural plots, and finally the dignitaries and the position for used plough shares. The cards for the separate rounds and for expansions are placed next to the board.
Assyria is played in three reigns. The first reign takes 2 rounds to play, the second and third reign need three rounds each. To keep close to reality floods are happening, too, at the end of each reign a flood happens.
In a game for four:
At the start of the game each player takes all the material in his color and a plough card. This plough card works as a joker and can be used instead of one of the five kinds of food.
One marker of each player is set on the 0 of prestige, camel and sacrifice track, the remaining ones are shuffled and placed randomly on the order of play table. Then the first player chooses one of the four pre-set spaces for the base of his first ziggurat, and in turn that continues to the last player who then draws four food cards, chooses one of them and hands the cards to the player next in order. The first player is left with the last card which is supposed to compensate for going first for the ziggurat spots.
Now the game begins. One round comprises the phases Farming, Expansion and Action.
In the Farming phase five food cards are drawn. These are arranged to order by values from left to right, a joker for food to supply a village thus placed at the utmost right. Then a second row is placed in exactly the same way. In order of play you now choose a column of two cards and place your marker above. Then the cards are taken up and used to try to supply the villages. The order of the markers placed determines the new order of play. If you are at the utmost left you go first during the rest of the round in all expansions and actions.
Now follows the Expansion phase. Each player in turn order can place the number of huts / villages as indicated by the expansion card of the round. This expansion card is drawn at the beginning of each round and shows a value between 2 and 4. The round village huts are placed on empty hexes, if possible in a way that leaves the food symbol on the hex visible. The new hut must be placed adjacent to a ziggurat or an already existing hut. Then you play the food symbols on the hexes with the huts. One symbol supplies one hat, so at best one card can supply three huts with three symbols. If you have too many food symbols, they are forfeit.
Ziggurats need not be supplied. All huts that have not been supplied are famished and must be taken off. Afterwards you can dig a well at the intersections of three hut hexes. Wells can only be dug outside the rivers, may not border a ziggurat and remain in play during the whole game. A well scores 6 points in the first reign, 5 points in the second and 4 points in the third reign. It is important to remember that each well is only scored once!
When all this has been implemented you receive revenue. Each hut outside Mesopotamia (the region between the rivers) scores you 1 prestige point, each hut inside Mesopotamia 2 points. Each ziggurat part scores 1 point, too. Wells score as already stated. Each first hut on one of the rivers scores you 3 camels, each additional one 2 camels. These camels are used for money and any camel surpassing 10 is forfeit.
This takes us directly into the action phase: You can use camels to build ziggurat parts, only one part per ziggurat. A ziggurat can only be built on a hex with one of your own huts, the hex must not be a river hex. The base of a ziggurat costs you 6 camels, the middle part 3 camels and the top 2 camels. Furthermore you can sacrifice camels. At the end of each reign the number of your own ziggurats is multiplied with the number indicated for you on the sacrifice track. Your marker on the prestige point track is advanced accordingly. Another use for your camels is to court favour with the dignitaries. Four camels buy you a hut in the top free spot next to the Higher Dignitary, three camels one next to the Middle Dignitary and two for the Lower Dignitary.
At the end of each reign each Dignitory yields the indicated number of influence points times the number of your own huts placed. The player with the highest influence receives the points on the expansion cards, the player in second place receives those points minus the value of the highest card, the one in third place the value minus the two highest cards and the fourth player receives in the second and third reign at least the value of the bonus card itself - but only if he has at least one hut next to one of the dignitaries.
Am Ende jeder Herrschaftszeit gibt jeder Würdenträger die angezeigte Zahl Einflusspunkte mal der Zahl der eigenen gesetzten Hütten. Der Spieler mit den meisten Einflusspunkten erhält einmalig die Punkte auf den Expansionskarten. Jener mit den zweitmeisten erhält diese ebenfalls, abzüglich der höchsten Karte. Der dritte, abzüglich der zwei höchsten Karten und der vierte erhält in der zweiten und dritten Herrschaftsphase, immerhin noch den Wert der Bonuskarte. Voraussetzung ist allerdings, dass man zumindest eine Hütte bei einem der Würdenträger platziert hat. Furthermore, the dignitaries can gain you additional points, a joker card or camels at the end of a reign. Finally, you can use camels to buy a food card and/or buy back your joker card by paying the indicated number of camels.
At the end of each reign a flood occurs, which removes all huts on the river hexes. After reigns 1 and 2 you start the new round by turning up the next expansion card.
After the third flood at the end of the game an additional scoring happens. You score 1 point for each level built in a ziggurat that is a maximum of three per ziggurat, 1 point for the plow share and 1 point for 2 camels each. Now the player furthest advanced on the prestige point track wins the game.
For the game with two or three players the following adjustments are made:
The board shrinks a little bit with each player missing, there are fewer wells available and you choose from fewer food cards and fewer food cards are displayed. And finally, there is no bonus card in the game for 2 and 3 players.
All in all, Assyria plays rather smoothly and due to the high strategy demand must be placed in the segment for experienced players. You should play Assyria at least two or three times to try out strategies that you have witnessed your opponent using. Generally, you should not neglect any part of the game, be it digging of wells or gain influence with the dignitaries or build ziggurats. The ziggurats are rather expensive at the start of the game, but develop into a well oiled prestige-point-producing machine, and that is not to be shunned.
If is fun to try out a plethora of strategies, not least of them hindering a player by placing huts and building ziggurats, which by the way is the only possibility to be mean while playing Assyria.
The game feels good, offers a high incentive for playing it again due to the permanently changing order of play and randomly appearing expansions cards, and there is no relevant element of chance. All that can only result in an unconditional recommendation of the game.
christian.huber@spielen.at
Spieler: 2 - 4
Alter : ages 12 and up
Dauer: 45 - 90 min
Autor : Emanuele Ornella
Grafik : Arnaud Demaegd
German title : Identical
Preis : etwa 35,00 Euro
Verlag : Ystari 2009
www.ystari.com
Genre : A game of resources management and optimizing
Zielgruppe : With friends
Mechanismen: place and supply huts, build ziggurats, garner influence
Kommentar:
Well-structured rules
Nicely interlocking mechanisms
More strategy than tactics
Attractive components
Vergleichbar mit:
Amyitis, Hermagor and other resources management games
Meine Bewertung: 5
Christian Huber:
Assyria is an entertaining strategy game, which quickly learned rules and the allure of trying different strategies and tactics.
Zufall 1
Taktik 1
Strategie__ 3
Kreativität
Wissen_
Gedächtnis 1
Kommunikation
Interaktion
Geschicklichkeit
Action